'Money' host Melissa Francis comes to O.C.

Oct. 22, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Melissa Francis will broadcast her 100th episod of "MONEY with Melissa Francis" from Dana Point on Tuesday, where the Fox Business anchor will be talking to speakers and guests at the TD Ameritrade conference held at the St. Register Monarch Bay. FOX BUSINESS NETWORK

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Melissa Francis is host of Fox Business Network's "MONEY with Melissa Francis," which airs at 2 p.m. weekdays. FOX BUSINESS NETWORK

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On "Little House On The Prairie," Melissa Francis played Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, while Jason Bateman -- yes, that's Jason Bateman in the photo -- player her brother James. At center, of course, is Pa Ingalls played by Michael Landon. NBC

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Melissa Francis looks happy in this publicity shot from "Little House On The Prairie." She was often seen crying on the show, though -- her parents died, her brother got spanked -- and she jokes that her ability to cry on demand helped land her the job.

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"Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter" is Melissa Francis' memoir, a story of her life a child actress in which the work was fun and good but her mother's pressure and stress was not.

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Melissa Francis joined Fox Business earlier this year after nearly a decade with NBC and CNBC. FOX BUSINESS NETWORK

Melissa Francis, who was sometimes billed as Missy at the time, joined "Little House On The Prairie" in 1981 as Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, a young girl whose parents die in a covered wagon accident -- it happened -- who with her brother James is taken in by the Ingalls family.

Melissa Francis will broadcast her 100th episod of "MONEY with Melissa Francis" from Dana Point on Tuesday, where the Fox Business anchor will be talking to speakers and guests at the TD Ameritrade conference held at the St. Register Monarch Bay.FOX BUSINESS NETWORK

â€˜Money With Melissa Francisâ€™

Melissa Francis, who will broadcast the 100th episode of her Fox Business Network show from Orange County on Tuesday, has lived most of her life on TV. You think we exaggerate?

At 6 months old, she starred in a Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo commercial, the first of 100 TV spots she would shoot as a child.

A few years later, she starred on three different series, most prominently as one of the new Ingalls kids on "Little House on the Prairie."

She spent much of the last decade at NBC and CNBC until earlier this year.

"What it really did for me was give me a work ethic," Francis, 39, says of her years as a child actress. "Working with Michael Landon (on 'Little House on the Prairie'), he was a lot of fun and loved to play pranks, but there was no joke about getting the work done.

"We had a lot of fun and there were great rewards for doing that, but he didn't put up with kids who didn't work like adults," she says. "I think that was an incredible lesson."

Francis comes to Dana Point this week to host her show, "Money With Melissa Francis," from the TD Ameritrade Institutional investment conference taking place at the St. Regis Monarch Bay.

"It's a conference that I did when I was an anchor at CNBC and I'm so happy to bring it over to Fox Business," Francis says. "Last time I went I was blown away by the fact that thousands of investors turned out to share information, talk about what trends they were seeing. The show's called 'Money' so it's a great place for us to go."

As for reaching her 100th show while here for the conference, Francis says she's had such a terrific time launching the show this year, it's hard for her to believe that many episodes have already passed.

"It's been really fun to have a show that I can shape around my personality and passion for this," she says.

In addition to "Money," Francis next month will see the publication of her memoir, "Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter." A large part of that story revolves around her acting career, including three seasons on "Little House," a job she says she got in part because she could cry on command. "That was my signature thing," she says, laughing.

"I had a magical childhood growing up on the set, on many different sets," Francis says. "But on the flip side of that was the story of the Tiger Mom. When I watch 'Dance Moms' or 'Honey Boo Boo' it reminds me of that. Not every child responds positively (to acting and pressure). Some kids shrink back."

That's a large part of the book, too: the toll that acting as a child took on her older sister Tiffany, and how their mother treated them as their careers went in different directions. Francis is estranged from her mother, whom she hasn't been in contact with for a decade or more, and is coming to terms with old feelings that dredged up old and painful memories, she says.

"One of the things that sparked it was my older son has just turned 6 and I knew that at some point he would ask me where my own mother was," Francis says. "And I didn't have a good answer. He said to me one day, he asked if my husband's mom was my mom too. And the next follow-up question was, 'Where's your mom?' He didn't ask it and I think he could sense that I didn't have an answer."

Writing the book helped her find a way to talk about the painful break with her mother and the role her sister's story had in that. It also helped her feel more honest and true with her husband, sons and friends who knew nothing of these old wounds in her life.

"I don't feel like I'm hiding it anymore," Francis says. "It had become an art form, how I'd conceal it. People would say, 'Are your parents coming for the holidays,' and I'd go, 'No, not this year.' And I thought my kids are going to pick up on that and that's not a good way to parent. So I thought I just have to get hold of this situation."

The book arrives on Nov. 6, Election Day, for which Francis will be reporting for Fox from either Florida or Virginia. On Nov. 12 she's scheduled to appear on "The Today Show" on NBC to talk about the book and through the end of the year it's expected to get a big push with prominent displays in Barnes & Noble stores.

After that, Francis says she wants to catch her breath after a busy year that saw her land at a new network on a new show, publish the book, and still try to find enough time to enjoy life with her husband and young sons.

"I have a lot of new things on my plate and I hope to follow up on those," she says, mentioning a desire to write more books, possibly fiction, in the future. "Though I keep teasing my in-laws that they're the sequel (to the current book) so they've got to be good to me."

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